Four legs and two

WHEN the English National Sheepdog Trials arrived in the
Exeter diocese, to be held on the Castle Hill
Estate, in Filleigh, the Vicar, the Revd Jane Willis, and her
Methodist colleague, the Revd Mark Noakes, decided to move the
Sunday morning service from St Paul's to the Estate.

Mrs Willis says that Lady Arran, who "was there with her dogs,
offered the use of the West Wing, and, together with Farming
Community Network we were delighted to welcome about 80 worshippers
of all ages - four legs and two". It was a simple service, she
says, celebrating shepherds and their dogs, and it drew together
the regular church members with the sheepdog triallists and others
from across the country who had come to the event.

It was led by Mrs Willis with Mr Noakes; for she tells me that
St Paul's is a "very happy informal Anglican/Methodist
collaboration". The preacher was the Revd David Ursell, himself a
Devon sheep-farmer, whose "amusing and insightful sermon included
the fact that sheep prefer a smiling face". The hymns were
accompanied by accordion and violin, played by triallists from
Northumberland.